


Play the Way You Feel It

by palateens



Series: OMGCP Valentines 2017 [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Domestic Fluff, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Trans Male Character, Trans William "Dex" Poindexter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 22:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9568751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palateens/pseuds/palateens
Summary: She goes to Samwell on a volleyball scholarship in part because of their reputation for being a Magick-inclusive community. She expects to make friends with likeminded people and reach new levels in her practice. She didn’t expect to fall in love.OrThe one where Magick is everywhere and the Frogs show affection through using it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Love Spells 
> 
> Bear with me on this one. It's a world where Magick is popular and widely practiced. But I wrote it closer to magical realism, so if I underplay how awesome stuff is in this world, it's mostly because my approach was to illustrate Magick as an everyday sort of thing. 
> 
> I did some research to create this AU, but if I at any point have written something grossly inaccurate, _please tell me_.

From a young age, Derek knew his affinity for words was something special. He didn’t notice until middle school how his emotions, affected his poetry, and affected the world around him. The air around him changes based on what landscapes he's creating in his conscious mind. He has a hard time focusing in class. Every subject leads to a different world in his mind, which he’d translates to the written word. Some people mistake him for being clairvoyant. Really, he just knows how to materialize that which people often ignore.  

He learns to play piano as a requisite from his parents, spending years working on scales and classics before moving on to music he was excited about. Composing came easily to Derek. He spends hours locked in his room at Andover meditating, crafting intentions and songs for rituals. Magick was frowned upon in the white upper class circles of the school. Although he could find people to practice with, Derek prefers to work alone. It gives him more freedom to explore his emotions. There's too much negative energy on the campus; Derek has to cleanse his room multiple times a week accordingly.

His songs and poetry get much better once he chooses Samwell. The school is known as the most Magick-friendly institute on the East Coast (as well as the most LGBT friendly campus but those two things went hand in hand). Going on the prospective student tour at the end of his senior year turns out to be a great idea. He meet Chris and Will and they click  _so_ well. The term significant encounter floats into his mind later that night. He's meant to go to Samwell; the three of them were meant to be a team.

Derek, finds out he can space out for hours with them and not even care. Chris later explains that it's called astral projection and that Derek (or Nursey as the team dubbed him) is particularly good at it. He makes the best practice and pregame mixes on roadies. It takes their captain a few wins to take Musical Magick seriously. But once Jack gives in, they're on a winning streak.  

Nursey enjoys the way he can commune with the other two. He loves how their auras mingle with one another the longer they're together. He loves how quite yet methodical Dex is when he works, and how Chowder is so empathetic and vivid in the way he thinks and interacted with the world around him. He loves watching them code along side each other; it's like a conversation between their Magick. Everything is going great, and then came Caitlin.

_/.\\_

Will grew up in a small town in Maine. Since its founding centuries ago, his quite town fused Pagan and Christian practices. Their intentions at mass were offered up with crystals and incense. Their objects were blessed with holy water and oils. Sigils appeared next to crosses and medals to ward homes. To the common outsider, their way of life seemed outdated and counterintuitive. Dex often argues it's similar to Creole and Latin@ versions of Catholicism, blending practices into something new and exciting. He doesn’t say it outloud, but there's something nice about praying to pagan gods, saints, dead relatives, or even an idea if it felt right. He has a hard time visualizing an almighty male-straight-cis-Anglo god, but he prays to the rhythm of the universe, the idea that nothing can be created nor destroyed, and the souls he can feel just beyond the veil of the fourth dimension. He envisions something out there, which he can hardly comprehend, was watching the world unfold.

He assumed he would take up a practice of Magick that was more traditional given how behind on the times his town was. Will enjoyed the old ways, he was a simple guy after all (bisexual demi guy status notwithstanding). Then his parents take him and his older brother down to New York at age fifteen. He begs to go to the Apple store on an impulse. And he walks out twenty minutes later with his very own smart phone and a new lease on life. Technology speaks to him, both literally and figuratively.

Will had a way for fixing appliances, that ability increased tenfold with electronics. He could get rid of a computer virus or poor internet connection in nothing flat. He merges his old practices with his new ones by saving images on his phone—crystals, herbs, sigils, saints, and the like. He saves up over several summers to pay for his hockey gear, using money spells whenever possible. His parents agree to drive him to schools within ten hours of their home. They want him to see the campuses for himself—to feel what environment is best for him.

Within five minutes of meeting Nursey and Chowder, he know Samwell was the place for him. Derek assumes Dex doesn't practice Magick (that was a fun argument). But the look on the other man’s face the first time Dex sends him an emoji spell is priceless. And that’s what Will does for them, he fixes and he wards their most precious devices. He loves doing acts of service for them. He sends emoji spells at least once a day to remind them that he's thinking of them. And when he doesn’t have his phone around, there's an image of a keyboard and a pencil tucked away in his back pocket for quick sigils making. Most of SMH have sigils in their cubbies and bags, the Frogs—as they came to be known—tend to have a few compatible sigils on rotation. Some for strength, valiance, quick-wit, and speed. He has multiple flash drives with images subcategorized by ritual and intent.

He loves watching Derek compose new songs; especially when they're on a roadie and he's conducting his boyfriends with three different phone instrument apps and his ukulele. Dex loved watching Dex and Chowder weave animated narratives, writing or orating as they went. He loved being pulled into astral projections with them. Dex never sleapt as well as he does when he's with Chowder, Nursey and Farmer. Honestly, he hadn’t expected them to bring anyone else into their relationship, but he's so happy it's Farmer.

_/.\\_

Contrary to popular belief, Caitlin Farmer is biracial. Her father is white and her mother is native Mexican. She was a second generation American on her Mami's side, and was proud of this by all accounts. She's from Southern California, so it isn’t hard to grow up around a large community of Magick practicing Mexicans. She goes to misa every Sunday with her mother, tías y primos. She carries around a homemade rosary wherever she goes. In fact, Mami gives her a new rosary for every pagan holiday and holy day of obligation—each with a different purpose.

Farmer is a proud Kitchen witch. She grew up in her Mami’s cocina, spending hours on end creating variants on comfort foods and traditional Mexican cuisine. She makes enough food for every half the block on meager supplies. No matter what the dish, more always comes out than what she puts in. Each creation has its own ritual with a new set of intentions and ingredients. Some of her cousins live next door, and have their own garden which she helps maintain. Her mole is known around town to cure mild ailments and her pan dulces could mend a broken heart.

She goes to Samwell on a volleyball scholarship in part because of their reputation for being a Magick-inclusive community. She expects to make friends with likeminded people and reach new levels in her practice. She didn’t expect to fall in love.

It starts with Chris Chow. March and April introduce her and the other freshmen to the Men’s Hockey team. He's sweet and his aura was the most beautiful shade of yellow—so awake, inspiring and intelligent—she’d ever encountered. They hang out for a few weeks. She’d make dinner in the Haus or student kitchens while Chowder described his latest journey to the astral plane. Sometimes, they would meditate while waiting for a dish to bake. He's easy to talk to and caring. They both love the Sharks and miss California like a part of their hearts have been ripped out. His soul murmurs to her and she thinks she could really see herself with someone like him.

And then she meets his boyfriends, which is an adventure of its own. Derek is slow to warm. He's a classic Pisces—sensitive and artistic, but fearful of letting others in. His aura is normally as blue (loving and intuitive) as the sea and when he sings, she wants to fall forever into his heart. The more she gets to know Nursey, the more she realizes that he never got to practice Magick in a loving community like her and Dex. He was forced to pave his own way as he transitioned into adulthood away from home. She makes it her mission to bond with him. She stops cooking anywhere but the Haus (she’d found it was an ideal environment and a stable base of operations was best anyway). Slowly, she entices him with her practices; coaxing him to help her prep food while she recounts traditions her family have passed down for generations.

In time, he opens himself to her. Derek begins exchanging stories, anecdotal and fictional, with her. He enjoys explaining his English assignments and how he can apply them to his songs. He pays attention to her interests beyond Magick, and they bond over reality TV and romantic comedies. He asks after her taste in music and makes playlists for her: pre-game playlists, destressing playlists, and ‘just because I thought you might need more __” playlists. For as much as he speaks, Caitlin only knows he accepts her as part of his life after he starts innating physical contact. They don't start dating until the end of their junior year. In hindsight, they’re so gone for each other at that point that it doesn’t matter anyway.

From some of his funnier stories, Caitlin had expects Dex to have a bright red aura, but he's closer to orange. He's precise and easily frazzled, but he was so creative. Their relationship as is easy to fall into. She was cooking on Betsy, and fuck did it die often. Dex is always within an earshot to intervene when the oven wasn’t cooperating or things with Nursey get too stifled (which happens because he can be cold and she's too stubborn to let him push her away). He helps her set up a garden in the backyard and makes the rest of the team contribute to its care (“Don’t act like you shitheads aren’t happy about being fed for free. The least you could do is help Farms.”).

They talk about growing up in communities that meld religions. They have two modes around each other—serious and childish. They bless objects together, and discuss current events; they procrastinate by making out against the kitchen counter, and turn workouts into pillow fights. Dex has this intuition about sending the right message at the right time—whether it's a funny video to lighten her mood or an article that responded to some burning question she had. When she's on a roadie, Dex texts multiple spells a day just to remind her they were cheering for her. It also didn’t hurt that his powers are able to break logins for premium streaming sites and channels.

By senior year, Farmer stops pretending she didn’t live in the Haus. They rotate who sleeps in what room, who helps her in the kitchen, who picks up after meals, and who’s turn it is to change the channel. They tend to do homework in the attic or the living room because there's more seating that way. They’re still figuring out post grad plans. Chris has multiple teams vying for him to sign at the end of the season. Derek’s toiling away at his senior capstone project—a poetry anthology. He’s already drafting inquiry letters to different publishers. He’s thinking about starting a Youtube channel to put his music out there (“fuck the record labels. They’re nothing but bigots.”). Dex has some teams interested in him, but he’s also got a few job offers for companies out west. Secretly, she thinks Will sees how much she and Chris miss home and wants them all to move out there. She’s been applying to graduate programs for physical therapy and speech pathology (she double majored and honestly doesn’t know what to choose). She didn’t expect to fall in love with three guys. But she couldn’t imagine her life any other way.

_/.\\_

Chris’ parents went to Samwell. It was always part of his plan to play hockey there. It was one vision that he needs to see to fruition. He sees the world differently than most. Many people don’t remember their dreams. From a young age, he considers his real life to be what happens when he gores to sleep. That’s when he journeys to new lands, meeting people from all over; some who he’s yet to meet and others who have passed on fully to the astral plane. His dreams are grand and important. He has a fulfilling life no matter what happens in his conscious day. As he gets older, he feels like he’s missing out on the connections his peers are making. He cares so much, but the kids he goes to school with are so uninterested in Magick. It’s frustrating and disheartening.

In high school, he makes a good core group of friends who are receptive to practicing Magick. He researches more online, learning how to project while awake and how to pull people along with him. It’s difficult when most of his friends don’t come from practicing families, but they manage alright from time to time.

He meets Will and Derek and its love at first sight. He doesn’t meet them in person for two years after that, however. They’re seniors on a prospective student tour. They look just like they did the first time they met, and even last week when he’d found both of them at this peir in what he assumed was Maine. There was a girl in SoCal that he talked to sometimes, but he wasn’t sure if she was supposed to go to Samwell—she didn’t seem sure yet. Chris needed to play it cool. Magick aside, no one liked hearing that he’d seen bits of their future while they were sleeping.  

They all enroll by the end of the day, swapping numbers as they go their separate ways. He spends the summer texting Nursey and Dex (that’s what he’s always called them). They learn about each other’s interests and practices. They get over some disagreements quicker than others. Meanwhile, Chowder tries to attune them more and more to the astral plane.

“Were we in The Castro last night?” Dex conference calls them one morning in late July.

“For a little bit, but we were mostly at Pier 49 with some people from Sweden,” Chowder corrects.

“So that really happened,” Nursey chimes in awe.

“Have we been doing this for literally years?” Dex demands.

“Well yea,” Chowder rasps. “I thought it would take you longer to realize. I’m sorry—”

“Chris,” Will sighs, “I’m not mad. Just…caught off guard. It’s ok, really.”

“Really?” Nursey says incredulously.

“We’ve done stranger things than go on a dream date,” Dex deadpans. “It was a date, right?”

“Duh,” Chowder snorts.

“Ok,” Dex replies at the same time as Nursey says “cool.”

“We’re dating,” Nursey clarifies. “This is a thing we’re doing…the three of us.”

“If you want,” Chowder offers hesitantly.

“Chyeah, of course C,” Derek assures him.

They arrive at Samwell more in sync than anyone could hope. When they’re on the ice together, no one can get past them. They practice Magick together whenever possible and Chris has never felt so connected to humanity. He’s never been in love before, but he thinks this is what it feels like. Chowder quite literally runs into Caitlin at a party October of that year.

“It’s you,” he blurts out.

“It is,” she indulges him amicably. She helps him off the ground, pulling him so close that their faces are inches apart.  

“Holy fuck,” she murmurs. “I know you.”

“Yeah?” He tries to suppress a look of joy. It could easily be a case of mistaken identity.

“We went to six flags last week,” she chuckles. “Or I think we did? You’re a witch right?”

“Yea,” he nods happily. “I wasn’t sure you were coming here. You said you were thinking about Berkley.”

She laughs and the air around them buzzes perfectly, “that was a year ago, Chris. We haven’t talked about that in a while.”

“You remembered my name,” he balks.

“Well you only told it to me twenty times,” she chirps. “It’s Caitlin, by the way.”

“I like Farmer better,” he admits, blushing when he realizes what he’s said.

“It’s ok, I think I do too,” she grins. “Farmer’s a good name for a Kitchen witch.”

He laughs, “can I get you a drink?”

Beyond her shoulder, he sees Nursey and Dex leaning close together on the couch. His divination skills aren’t full proof. But so far, his track record is good. He’s seen them move to NoCal, raise a few kids, and spend long lives together. He’s seen the souls of people who were soulmates in their mortal existence. He can see them intertwined for eternity if they can make it work right now.

He hears Caitlin giggle and he knows they’re going to be alright.

“Yeah,” she whispers, “I’d really like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fic title - Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
> 
> I'm clearly both omgcp and poly trash, [come say hi on tumblr.](http://abominableobriens.tumblr.com/)


End file.
